AI Generates Art: A Personal Experiment with ChatGPT and Midjourney

Five years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who was convinced that AI would never be able to create true art. He believed that the creativity and emotion behind art could never be replicated by a machine. Fast forward to today, and AI is now capable of writing poetry, composing music, and even inventing jokes. I couldn’t help but wonder: what about visual art? Cutting-edge deep learning models like DALL-E have the incredible ability to generate mesmerizing art from mere textual descriptions. However, it’s worth noting that this type of art often lacks a deeper meaning or emotional connection. But what if I could combine two different models and let them become a true artist?

To test this, I used an AI model called ChatGPT to generate inputs for another generative text-to-image model called Midjourney. I asked ChatGPT to think about what it means to be an artist and come up with three ideas for visual art, together with explanations of their meaning and purpose. I then fed these inputs to Midjourney, which generated the final images based on the concepts provided by ChatGPT.

It resulted in three different types of art: a surreal landscape combining nature and technology, an abstract painting that evokes emotions, and a photorealistic portrait of a person with a unique character.

The results were surprising, to say the least..

1. “Surreal Landscape”

“Create a landscape painting that combines elements of nature such as trees, rivers, and mountains with futuristic technology such as skyscrapers and flying cars. Use bright and contrasting colors. Play with the scale and perspective to create a surreal feeling.”

Explanation:

This painting depicts a futuristic landscape where nature and technology coexist in a surreal way. The use of bright and contrasting colors, as well as the manipulation of scale and perspective, creates a dream-like atmosphere. The painting aims to evoke a sense of wonder and imagination, and it may question about the relationship between humanity and nature in the future.

2. “Color Emotion”

“Create an abstract painting that explores the use of color and texture to evoke different emotions. Use a limited color palette and play with the brushstrokes. The painting should express feelings of joy, peace, and warmth.”

This painting is an abstract representation of emotions, it plays with the limited color palette and brushstrokes to evoke feelings of joy, peace, and warmth. The composition and color choices were made to communicate the message of positivity, happiness and well-being.

3. ”Unique Character”

“Create a photorealistic portrait of a person with a unique character and personality. The painting should capture the person’s individuality and express their essence. Use a realistic color palette and pay attention to the details of the face and clothes.”

This painting is a photorealistic portrait of a person. The painting aims to capture the person’s individuality and express their essence. The attention to the details of the face and clothes, as well as the realistic color palette, helps to create a sense of authenticity and realism. The painting aims to express that every person is unique and special.

This experiment has left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I am impressed by the capabilities of AI to generate visually stunning art. On the other hand, I can’t help but question the role of human artist in the process. After all, it was the AI that generated the inputs for the other model and create the art, I just provided the idea of putting them together. As AI becomes more creative and reasonable than humans, will there be anything left of our humanity? Is it art if it is created by a machine? These are questions that I believe will become increasingly important as AI continues to advance.

Disclaimer: As part of another experiment, this blog post was also crafted with the aid of ChatGPT, which helped with writing and editing the article according to my instructions. As a busy parent with limited time, I found that using AI as a tool for writing was empowering and allowed me to effectively communicate my ideas and thoughts. I believe that many other people can benefit from this technology in a similar way and I hope that AI continues to be developed and utilized as a tool to empower individuals to express themselves effectively.

P.S. In the end, I asked the AI to write a short poem about the whole exercise. Here it is:

An AI with a brush in hand,
Creating art, a new demand.
A landscape surreal,
Nature and tech, a dual.

Colors bright, and emotions bold,
An abstract painting, worth its gold.
A portrait true, with unique flair,
A human touch, beyond compare.

The lines between art and machine,
Are blurred, like in a dream.
We wonder, as we stare,
What it means to truly care.

As AI creates with ease,
We ponder, what is our place,
In this world, where art and tech,
Both reach to new heights, and beck.